How to Really Overcome Extreme Fatigue after Eating?
Cortisol, a stress hormone, increases your alertness, which is why levels tend to peak between 6 and 8 in the morning, just before you wake up. They begin to gradually decline after that and around 3 p.m. it suddenly hits you – the afternoon slump. You experience extreme fatigue after eating, you can’t concentrate and you’re desperately in need of a cup of (strong) coffee. But your cortisol levels aren’t the only one to blame. Your circadian rhythm, your body’s internal clock, is also working against your go-go-go lifestyle. Most people have a biphasic circadian rhythm – that is, they have two periods of sleepiness during a 24-hour period and do best having two periods of sleep. Most people also experience extreme fatigue after eating that occurs between 2-4 p.m. Even your body’s core temperature dips during this time, which signals your brain to release sleep-inducing melatonin (this also happens at night, but on a larger scale). So your body is programed to feel tired and, ideally, sleep in the afternoon (at least for a little while), but most of us (in the United States, at least) do not. At the same time, you’ve probably just eaten lunch and maybe it wasn’t exactly healthy. You might be falling into a food coma or, alternatively,